Is Now a Good Time to Invest?

That seems to be the case for my colleague and relative, each happily renting until a couple of weeks ago. In my colleague's case the transition from renting to buying happened mostly because of lifestyle considerations; she and her husband would like more space. Their desire grew stronger when they found a dreamy 100-year-old home in a Boston suburb, with intricate crown molding, an antique newel post and a sub-$400,000 price. They're moving in sometime this June.

My D.C.-based relative is more profit-minded, so he began looking at foreclosures, bank-owned properties and other homes that were listed far below their assessed values. After a couple of weeks of fervid hunting, he placed an offer on a roomy brick home in an upscale suburb of Washington, D.C. The buyers accepted it, but the deal fell apart when the home inspector found numerous small problems that made the home less affordable than it appeared.

As this season of open houses continues, it's a ripe time for all buyers—even ones who aren't my friends—to seek our smart advice on navigating the housing market. Bookstores are filled with various how-tos and Idiot's Guides, but a new book offers particularly comprehensive advice. "Home Rich: How to Buy, Manage, Improve and Sell the Most Valuable Investment of Your Life" came out in February, and it's an unusually comprehensive and clearheaded guide to choosing, maintaining, and upgrading a home so that it's likely to be a great place to live and have a decent shot at appreciating over time. While it covers the basics of choosing a realtor and finding the right mortgage competently, it also has chapters on green homebuilding and how to landscape a yard to maximize value, and it wisely emphasizes the important role a home inspector will play in making sure your purchase is a wise one. Because of the long deadlines of the publishing world, author Gerri Willis wasn't able to account for the foreclosure crisis in her discussion of mortgages, and she's perhaps slightly too focused on the potential for homes to appreciate during a time when most homes are declining in value. Still, for homebuyers who don't have a real estate columnist sitting in a nearby cubicle or on their family tree, "Home Rich" is a great source of wisdom.

Happy hunting.

Daniel McGinn is a national correspondent at Newsweek and the author of " House Lust: Americas Obsession With Our Homes ."

© 2008